May 16, 2016 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

Source: "Reclaimed by nature: Eerie images reveal abandoned buildings from across Europe which have been taken over by plant-life"--Daily Mail. More photographs and article at the link.

Survival, Self-Defense and Firearms:

• "Gerber Ghoststrike: My New EDC"--Advanced Survival Guide. For those of you that would prefer a lightweight fixed blade knife over a folder, you might want to take a look at this review. As a big plus, the reviewer also found the sheath to be excellent.
• "Kenai Chest Holster"--The Firearms Blog. A holster and rigging system designed for all-day carry on your chest. Although designed for the outdoorsman, I could see some circumstances where it could be used for concealed carry. A little pricey ($150) but looks interesting. I think for someone carrying a larger handgun while out and about in the woods, this would be a good system.
• "Chinese Wheelbarrow, Meet the Honey Badger Wheel"--No Tech Magazine. The so-called Chinese wheelbarrow places the wheel in the center with cargo/carrying areas on either side. The author of this piece takes a look at a modern version that has cargo boxes on each side of a wheel with pneumatic tires. With the cargo containers, it would not be very useful for yard/garden work, but it would be better for hauling loads along paths, such as from a parking area to a cabin or camping spot.
• "Pre-Hospital Treatment Of Burns"--Underground Medic. A good discussion of burns, and differences in treating chemical, radiation, electrical and contact burns. It also discusses burns of the airways. Important stuff.
• Glock Gadget Update: I received an email update indicating that samples received last week looked great, and anticipating that shipments would start to go out in 4 to 6 weeks.

Other Stuff:

• "Fraternal Order of Police Prediction: Chicago Violence Ready to Explode This Summer"--Breitbart. From the article:

Finally, the FOP chief worried about plans in the state capital to allow for totally anonymous complaints about supposed police misconduct, saying the policy will “light up this city.”

If complaints become anonymous, “most gangbangers” are going to have the department complaint line “on speed dial,” Angelo points out. He went on to warn that with anonymous complaints constantly flooding the department, officials will pressure cops to steer clear of areas where the complaints are emanating from and that is a recipe for retreat, Angelo says.

Angelo said sergeants will only end up telling street cops to “stay away from that corner” because every complaint will result in a mound of paper work.

“What happens with that,” Angelo warned, “when the sergeant tells us to stay away, we give them [the gangbangers] the corner. We lose the corner, we lose the block. We lose the block, we lose the community, and it’s going to light up this summer.”

• "The amazing 1969 prophecy that racial preferences would cause the exact grievances of protesters today"--Heterodox Academy. This was linked at Instapundit. Apparently in 1969, a California appellate judge wrote a letter to the dean of Yale's law school warning that admission preferences for minorities would lead to unqualified minorities placed in direct competition with more capable students, which would harden the perception of intellectual superiority of white students. The judge further warned:

No one can be expected to accept an inferior status willingly. The black students, unable to compete on even terms in the study of law, inevitably will seek other means to achieve recognition and self-expression. This is likely to take two forms. First, agitation to change the environment from one in which they are unable to compete to one in which they can. Demands will be made for elimination of competition, reduction in standards of performance, adoption of courses of study which do not require intensive legal analysis, and recognition for academic credit of sociological activities which have only an indirect relationship to legal training. Second, it seems probable that this group will seek personal satisfaction and public recognition by aggressive conduct, which, although ostensibly directed at external injustices and problems, will in fact be primarily motivated by the psychological needs of the members of the group to overcome feelings of inferiority caused by lack of success in their studies. Since the common denominator of the group of students with lower qualifications is one of race this aggressive expression will undoubtedly take the form of racial demands–the employment of faculty on the basis of race, a marking system based on race, the establishment of a black curriculum and a black law journal, an increase in black financial aid, and a rule against expulsion of black students who fail to satisfy minimum academic standards.

But, as I've noted before, liberals don't care about the consequences of their policies so long as the policies make liberals feel good about themselves.

• "Erdogan and the Return of the Ottoman Empire"--The New Observer.  On May 30, 2015, Erdogan made a public speech that was only recently translated into English. The article summarizes: "Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan called last year for the 'conquest' of Europe by Islam 'through emigration' into Europe and announced that the 'conquest is to have the courage, tenacity, and sagacity to defy the entire world even at the hardest times.'" The article has a lengthy excerpt from the speech.
• "Pentagon: China Restructures for War"--The Washington Free Beacon. "The armed forces were reformed with new military regions, a new command structure, and updated strategies to better fight regional, high technology warfare, the 145-page report to Congress says."
• "Venezuela State of Emergency: Country's President Accuses US of Plotting To Topple Regime"--Inquisitr. The article indicates that Venezuelan President Maduro has declared a state of emergency for a period of 60 days. Furthermore:

While Venezuela’s Maduro has sworn that he will complete his term as president, protests in Venezuela are increasing and roughly 70 percent of citizens in the country want their president out this year. Before ordering the state of emergency, Maduro blasted his political rivals, calling them “coup-mongering elitists” who want nothing more than to follow in the footsteps of Brazil. That nation’s leftist leader, Dilma Rousseff, was recently impeached.

As part of the recently-issued state of emergency in Venezuela, the country’s disputed president has ordered military exercises to begin next weekend. According to Maduro, the exercises are in response to “trouble makers” trying to incite and/or justify a foreign invasion of Venezuela.

• "No room for refugees"--Vox Popoli. In 376, the Romans let approximately 90,000 Goths fleeing the Huns cross into and settle within the Roman empire. The Goths subsequently formed an army and plundered the region. 

• Related: "America’s Thinning Cohesion"--Taki's Magazine. The author notes that the United States does (or did) have a national identity and culture that primarily descended from British culture and that provides a cohesion on a national level. The author goes on to argue that this cohesion is breaking down as the national identity is rejected by an increasing number of people. Although the author focuses on immigrants that refuse to assimilate, the same principle applies to progressives and their followers that, in general, have rejected Western values and culture.

• "Leftists and Sexualizing Children"--Anonymous Conservative. The author quotes at length from a piece in Der Speigel about leftists in the late 1960's and early 1970's were sexually abusing children in Germany in order to bring about a "sexual revolution" among children. Why would someone do that? The Anonymous Conservative theorizes it is innate among the rabbits: they see K-selection as a threat and aberration and, therefore, something that needs to be fixed ... starting with the children.

• Related: The Realist directed my attention to this article: "Sex and State Power — What’s Behind Obama’s Transgender Push"--Bookworm Room. The author of that article asserts that liberals obsession with sex and gender is that it is central to feelings of individuality and self-ownership, but, as we know from experience, the left cannot stand the thought of anything being outside the control of government. Thus:

The practical problem for the Left when it tries to attack individuality as expressed through sexuality is the fact that a person’s sense of an inviolate physical self develops quite early, during childhood:

Once a child individuates, he becomes aware of being his own self. … The most basic thing one can own is one’s own self, and not letting others touch that self in ways you don’t like is an exercise in self-ownership. (Emphasis mine.)

The Left, therefore, needs to decouple self and body as early as possible in a person’s development — and it does this by bringing its own peculiar notions of sexuality into the realms of child-rearing and education.

• George Orwell was an optimist: "Everything We Know About How the FBI Hacks People"--Wired. 
• "Christian Principal Goes Into Exile"--Rob Dreher at The American Conservative. Writing about the new federal mandates on transgenders in public schools and expanding sex education to affirm transgenderism, Dreher warns: "[W]hat do you do when they effectively kick you out of the public square (in this case, the public schools) because of your religious beliefs? This is what traditional Christians are going to increasingly face in the years to come. In places like Fort Worth, Massachusetts, and many other locales, they are facing it now."